


Just Checking In

by sugarby



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Canon Compliant, Drabble, F/M, sentimental talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 09:51:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18496501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarby/pseuds/sugarby
Summary: Whatever they're inadvertently talking about, 'cause she's lost, it's not a waste of time as it gets a sign of life out of V in a toothy chuckle. "I'm just checking in again and asking if you're gonna be okay." She can easily grab her gear and tag along. Inviting herself might be drastic but he's withering away andno one'sasking if he's alright.(OR: Lady wonders about V's condition and about something he said before).





	Just Checking In

**Author's Note:**

> Do you know what it’s like to walk into a supermarket only to then stand aside with your cart for some long minutes while your thumbs go a mile a minute typing out a story idea that comes nowhere?! _I sure do_ and _this_ is it!
> 
> But I've no regrets. I'm happy to take this on as a drabble to practice my writing, and I do love me some Lady (she gets better presentation in the anime than DMC5 imo). This is going off that time Vergil walked past Lady in DMC3.
> 
> This is also one of those times when I just sat down and did my best to put out what came out without spending _hours_ , so I hope it pays off and I don't hate this afterwards.

An abundance of things about  _The Mysterious One_ are left undiscovered and therefore unanswered, and thus whoever's involved is curious and confused. An infuriating combination to be, really. 

No one's had the chance to properly discuss either; they've been on the constant move, wits about and on high alert, since getting stuck in all this, so the majority pushed it to the back for the time being and let the newcomer tag along. The more the merrier, right? It wasn't decided thoughtlessly. It made sense—not completely—and risk of brutal consequence felt low because, according to the man himself, V's human, never mind the flesh of his arms baring black encryptions that host demons.

So he was trustworthy for the time being until they later had reason to let him go, either by abandonment or death, whichever would be best come the situation (and they all preferred it _not to_. Especially Nero since he's spent the most time with him and finds him to be cool, and V's helped them out a great deal so far).

V's mysteriousness catches them in different ways.

For Dante, it's how he knows so much about the underworld for a _human_ ; possibly more so in some areas than Trish, the gang's resident source of underworld gossip and hearsay.

For Nero, an easy one is the sandals first and foremost. Along with how someone can be so pretty even with demon blood in their hair and the dust of broken debris covering him like a melancholic veil. It's allying himself with demons—one of which sure brings the sass—and the poetry. _Ohh, the poetry,_ the pristine book embossed with the namesake letter always present in hand between weaving through demon claws and near death. It obviously means much to him, enough so that parting is so undesirable it'd be inconsolable.

For Lady, it's something in particular he said after she awoke in the van:   

> V was considerate of the circumstance in which she was naked besides a flimsy blanket offered at the last minute and kept his back to her,  _"I'm glad to see you looking so well."_

All she'd said in reply was _"You too, I guess."_ because she'd thought he was just being polite. Honestly, as brief as it was, talking with V was much better than the third degree Nero gave and Nico demanding she take a shovel and help dig a path for the van to get through. She was literally encased in a demon for God's sake, don't these people know about downtime?!

(She wasn't being paid nearly enough for any of this crap and it was _some of Dante's_ cut anyway).

"Hey," She steps near him and he doesn't turn around altogether so much as he stops mid-hobble and turns just his head in her direction, waiting on the tip of his cane that's shaking under the pressure of focused weight. She bites her lip, "What you said to me before, that you were glad I looked well. What did you mean by that?"

"As...I heard it," his words are without the usual smooth flow, now harsh with heavy breath between every other word he pushes out. _'Are things that bad?'_ she watches a fleck of skin— _'What?!'_ —fall from his face. _'Shit, it's that bad'_. "Your absence this past month...was due to Urizen...embedding you within Artemis, the demon Nero defeated...to free you."

"Yeah." She hates it. It's gross and embarrassing. 

"So to see you again...after the...unfortunate circumstance, I trust, was of...great relief. And...I expressed it."

"You did, but I feel like...like maybe there's more to it?" Where any sort of confirmation or rejection should be, V just smiles tiredly.  _'Okay. Great.'_ "You look terrible. Literally falling to pieces just when I didn't think you could be any more dramatic."

"You'll have to excuse my...unattractive condition.

 _'You, unattractive? Give me a break.'_ "What, you made of glass or something?"

V lifts an arm up and its shattering state gleams beneath the scarce rays of light peeking down in to where they are from above, "It is...proof that I'm without strength. Even less so now...as I reach the end."

"Can I get you anything?"

"I want nothing more...than to see this through."

Lady nods because okay; nods because she gets that he's wasting away and there's no chance of anything doctors can do to prolong his existence, let alone whatever junk she could find lying in the van. "I wish I could say it to you, V. That you look well but..."

In the near distance she listens to Dante and Nero bicker.

"It's my gig." Dante is sick of saying but reminds Nero for the umpteenth time, wanting to claim it all for the honourable reason of avoiding unnecessary casualties he can prevent.

"I've got all the power I need _right here_!" Nero thrusts his makeshift right arm up in his face and Lady holds back a chuckle; at gruesome angles when it's beat up and dented and spitting blue and sparking fire, it's no different than someone sticking a robot arm to a Ken doll.

"Let him go, Dante." V raises his voice to reach them before he will as he limps over. "We'll need all the help...we can get."

Dante sighs, "Fine but we go our separate ways." he salutes with two fingers and heads for the left side of the cliff's edge.

Nero heads for the centre while V makes way for the far right.

"Hey!"

A heavier sigh than before leaves V when he stops this time.

"This is gonna sound... _stupid_ at a time like this."   
  
"'Wisdom begins in wonder'."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Socrates."

"Gesundheit." Whatever they're inadvertently talking about, 'cause she's lost, it's not a waste of time as it gets a sign of life out of V in a toothy chuckle. "I'm just checking in again and asking if you're gonna be okay." She can easily grab her gear and tag along. Inviting herself might be drastic but he's withering away and _no one's_  asking if he's alright. And she's jonesing for some good old demon slaying anyway after being MIA for a month. _Plus_  more participation means more of the cut, right?

"And now it is I who is in wonder at your keenness regarding my wellbeing."

"Hey, I can even give a shit about Dante on a good day."

"He is...strong." He was able to live from defeat by Urizen where most, even Nero, could've easily died. He's been stabbed and cursed more times than anyone who's ever lived and still Dante rises like fire. V clutches his cane tighter, sick to his stomach of this hostile envy. "Not to incur your wrath by what I'm about to insinuate but...there is no need for any more unnecessary causalities."

"Trish and me getting caught like that? It doesn't happen often, I promise. We can hold our own against Dante." She laughs because yeah, they have fun the three of them. Whatever they are to each other—business associates, friends even. (Dante would unironically say 'squad' wouldn't he?).

"I don't doubt you can but...this task...it's mine to conclude. Tell me, have you...ever so badly desired to stop an almighty evil...you felt tethered to? Felt responsible for?"

Instantly, Arkham flashes to mind. His fingers bunching at the tips in his pathetic crawl to her feet; his blood flowingly messily out of him while he monologued. The ugly amalgamation of man and greed she had forsaken as her father begged her by name and she'd shot him until the bullets were used up. Yeah, she knows a thing about feeling responsible for an 'almighty evil'; for feeling it's her right to end things.

"I'm aware of your abilities," V says as if speaking from experience but she doesn't recall ever fighting near him. She must just give off the vibe that she's strong, if the huge rocket launcher she carries and her comfort being around demons don't already make it obvious. "Still, there can be no more involved."

Lady lips spread but it's not exactly a smile, "Yeah, I get it. Four's a crowd, right? Be careful."

V walks to the edge of the cliff.

Lady watches him the entire time. She thinks she can still hear Dante and Nero bickering below, however far down they've landed, but when Griffon is summoned and soars past to collect and lift his summoner up, she recognises _her name_ spoken so softly on the end of sincere gratitude.

**Author's Note:**

> _My 'drabbles'_ are never 100 words. And _Socrates_ is someone with good quotes about wisdom; they're good.


End file.
